When Corey Lyons and a group of his coworkers decided to put together a team for Wichita’s inaugural men’s adult basketball league, they weren’t quite sure what level of competition they would find.
They found out pretty quickly: There were some ballers in the league.
“The competition was good,” Lyons said. “There were some ex-college players that were there. There were pretty good high school ballers that didn’t go to college, but they still played ball.”
There were also players Lyons recognized from other competitive basketball leagues around Wichita, and one experienced tournament team from Clearwater ended up winning the league championship.
But Lyons says that shouldn’t scare away players who may not have college experience — or even those who haven’t played organized basketball in years.
His Wichita Federal Credit Union team, the Wichita Wasps, was made up of coworkers who had never played together before. They didn’t consider themselves one of the league’s strongest teams, but they still won games and even upset one of the better teams.
“I wouldn’t discourage anybody from any talent level to go because you don’t know who’s going to sign up,” Lyons said.
Now Wichita Park & Recreation is looking to grow the league for its fall season, and there are plenty of ways to build a team.
Grab people from work. Put together a church team. Call some fraternity brothers, cousins or old high school classmates. Round up the guys you play pickup ball with at the gym or park. Neighborhood friends, former teammates and social or civic organizations can also pull together a squad.
And if you can’t find a whole team, that’s no reason to sit this season out.
The city offers a Single Player Pool where individual players can list themselves as available. Existing teams can use the pool to find additional players or substitutes, and players in the pool can connect with each other and potentially form a team of their own.
Lyons said the league offered more than just a chance to play basketball.
His coworkers started the season without much experience playing together, but over the weeks they began learning each other’s games and building chemistry.
“Everybody that I work with really enjoyed it,” he said. “At the end we really started gelling and starting to get to know each other and starting to get to know the other teams as well.”
The Wichita Federal team even developed a cheering section. Lyons said employees from different credit union branches came out to the games, with crowds of 15 to 20 coworkers sometimes showing up to support the team.
The league also has the structure of organized basketball rather than pickup games. Lyons said games had referees and scorekeepers, fouls were tracked and teams received their schedules in advance. He especially liked having many of the same officials working games from week to week.
“It becomes like a type of community thing,” he said.
The fall 5-on-5 league is open to men 18 and older. Games will be played Thursday evenings at the Carl G. Brewer Community Center, 1329 E. 16th St. N., with game times beginning at 5:45, 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 p.m. The season runs Oct. 15 through Dec. 17, and registration closes Monday, Oct. 5. The cost is $350 per team.
The city says it may create separate divisions depending on how many teams register, which could help accommodate different levels of competition.
Ready to Play?
Register a team: Use Wichita Park & Recreation’s basketball registration page and select “Register Online.” Look for Adult Fall Basketball League – Men’s, Activity #43110315-01. Wichita Men’s Basketball Team Registration
Don’t have a team? Join the Single Player Pool: Select Basketball, Men’s and Fall when completing the form. Wichita Single Player Pool
The deadline to get in the game is Oct. 5.
